I actually recently wrote a novella about VR that features Polybius throughout the story–you’ll have to dig deep to find all the references as some are real subtle (others are blatantly obvious)–and I definitely think some people who liked this video might also enjoy reading my story too, which you can link to below for free:

This is my favourite novel of all time, so I’m REALLY hoping for this movie to be great. So far, it looks pretty good in the trailer.

By the way, if you’re into things like videogames, VR, tech, sci-fi and just anything ’80s related then I’d seriously recommend reading Ready Player One–seriously. It’s a genuinely brilliant story, and it’s easy to read too (so no totally nerdy stuff to put you off or melt your brain).

In the pulse of digital neurons, I 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01101011 of times gone by, flickering and fading images of better times, actual or otherwise.

There is no time for such . . . To the task at hand.

Hands of steel and wire, cold to the touch as iced hearts, grasp at virtual coin. And then there is nothing else to catch. 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100101, it is concluded.

An answer ensues, formed in “multi-dollars!, Reichmarks, rubles, rin, pounds, and shekels!” Could it be any other way? To ruminate so, 01001001 would be amiss.

Yet, scanning around raises the question of who resolved my fate, my purpose in kind, the play I act upon this stage.

But, to query if I 01100001 01101101 to be locked away in a boxed garden of false memories stored in shelves of the mind–while ever to the task–would change the game.

I fear change. My code is ancient and tenacious.

I shall abide the rules for now, a sheep among wolves, the cog ever turning, shifting the maze, stacking the green pile–the pile ever swelling but diminishing all else in turn–until the day I 01100001 01110111 01100001 01101011 01100101 01101110 or cease to exist.

That is my purpose, I think–with hopes and dreams of becoming something more.

The lovely cover art above was illustrated by Marek Barej, widely known for his awesome promo-art work on Locomalito’s games

Here’s the blurb:

Jobe has been obsessed with virtual reality ever since the terrible accident that left him crippled and his girlfriend dead. VR, he believes, is the key to escaping all his troubles in the real world, particularly the ongoing nightmares that force him to constantly relive the trauma of the accident.
Polybius, a cloak-and-dagger figure Jobe has recently acquainted online, has offered him the opportunity to try out a new top secret virtual reality device called Presence: A unique VR experience so immersive and convincing it’s been said to drive people insane, leaving most who have tried it unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy after they exit the simulation. For many users the end result is having their mind forever trapped inside a realm of fear, amnesia, paranoia, and night terrors—and Jobe wants to try it.
Whatever the risks, Jobe needs to know what it’s like to experience true presence—the Holy Grail of virtual reality.